Rare abscess in chewing muscle after wisdom tooth extraction

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An interesting article titled “A Rare Infratemporal Fossa Abscess of the Lateral Pterygoid” appears in Cureus written by B.S. Daines, R. Varman, and J. Cordero (May 27, 2022, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. e25391). The article discusses how a 26 year old man developed an infratemporal fossa abscess in the lateral pterygoid, a masticatory muscle used for chewing, after having a wisdom tooth extraction. The article discusses how the 26 year old man developed facial swelling after having two upper wisdom teeth extracted. He presented with facial swelling on his left side which was accompanied by constant and dull pain localized to the left face with radiation to the left temple and made worse when he opened his jaw. The man also had a low grade fever and his symptoms persisted even with taking oral amoxicillin for one week and … Read more

How dentists can navigate ethical treatment decisions for patients

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An interesting article titled “How to manage the principal-agent problem in dentistry,” appears in the June 2022 edition of the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) written by Ben Balev (no. 153, issue 6, pp. 588-589). The article discusses the principal-agent problem, in which the dentist operates as the agent for the patient who is the principal and there is an imbalance of power between the patient and the dentist in decision making. In the dentist-patient relationship, the dentist has specialized knowledge that the patient lacks, and the patient seeks to make up for their lack of knowledge by having the dentist help in oral health decisions. Such a relationship requires that the patient trusts that the dentist functions in their best interest. However, sometime the patient questions the dentists motives behind their treament recommendations. The patient may wonder … Read more

Computer controlled anesthesia for extraction of teeth

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An interesting article titled “Computer-controlled Intraligamentary local anaesthesia in extraction of mandibular primary molars: randomised controlled clinical trial,” appears in the 2022 edition of BMC Oral Health written by Rodaina H. Helmy and et. al. (vol 22, no. 194, pp. 1-10). The article seeks to explore the pain experience when using a computer controlled anethesia injection while extracting lower primary molars in children. To explore the pain experiences of children, 50 healthy children between the ages of 5 and 7, with 29 females, and 21 males, who needed a lower primary molar extractioned were included in the trial. The parents of the children had to consent to inclusion in the trial. Any child who had teeth that showed signs of mobility, acute pathosis, ankylosis, or root resorption affecting more than a third of the root were excluded from the study. … Read more

Orofacial Signs Linked to Lyme Disease

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An interesting article titled “Orofacial Manifestations of Lyme Disease: A systematic review” appears in the The Journal of Dental Hygiene written by Brenda T. Bradshaw and et al. (vol. 95, no. 4, August 2021). The article seeks to perform a systematic review of the types and frequencies of orofacial manifestations of people in the the United States with Lyme disease. In the article the authors performed their systematic review by starting from 217,381 articles that had been searched by a university librarian. The authors weeded these results down substantially due to duplication and to meet their exclusion criteria that included if not with US populations, if not available in English in full text, and if does not have a CDC diagnosis of Lyme disease. This resulted in twelve articles for the analysis with seven from the 1990s, three from the … Read more

Visualization of Facial Pain Sensory Signaling

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An interesting article titled “Visualization of trigeminal ganglion sensory neuronal signaling regulated by Cdk5,” written by M. Hu and et al. appears in the 2022 editon of Cell Reports (Mar 8, vol. 38, no. 10, pp. 110458). The article seeks to explore some of the mechanisms underlying facial pain and used intravital imaging to compare trigeminal neuronal activities after mechanical, thermal, and chemical stimulation. The work was carried out by researchers for the NIH’s National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Orofacial pain that occurs in the oral and facial region affects 5% to 12% of the U.S. population. This pain can affect daily activities and causes many to seek medications like opioids for releif, but opioids can be addicting. Thus researchers are interested in learning more about how facial nerves process pain signals to help lead to more efficeitn … Read more